On the Duke's Authority (Ducal Encounters series 4 Book 3) Page 8

  Leona glanced at Ariana. Her animated expression of a few minutes earlier had given way to a deep frown that did little to detract from her youthful and vibrant beauty. As a footman cleared the soup plates, Frankie told Faraday to hold the fish course until Lord Amos returned.

  He did so after about ten minutes, looking grim-faced.

  ‘My apologies,’ he said, resuming his seat. ‘It seems they were returning to London from Devonshire’s estate when they broke down.’

  ‘Do you believe them?’ the duke asked.

  ‘Not a word,’ Lord Amos replied, clenching his jaw. ‘Winchester is completely out of their way. They had no reason to pass anywhere near us. Besides, I happen to know that Devonshire is in dun territory and my mother-in-law never stops trying to cadge invitations to this estate, pretending she cares about the children. I have not acquiesced to any of them thus far, as you know.’

  ‘If they intended to spend the night in Winchester, they had no reason to be anywhere near Shawford,’ Lord Vince pointed out.

  ‘Quite.’ Lord Amos picked up his fish knife and pushed his halibut around his plate. Ariana looked as though she wanted to say something to reassure him, as did all the ladies at the table, but none of them could find the right words. A helpless glance passed between the duke and Frankie. ‘Sorry about this,’ Lord Amos added, addressing the remark to Mr Conroy and Leona. ‘You are not interested in our domestic disagreements, and I wish you had not been exposed to this particular one.’

  ‘Don’t let it worry you,’ Mr Conroy said in that easy manner of his. ‘We can all of us choose our friends but not our families.’

  ‘Very true,’ Lord Amos replied, picking up his wine glass and taking a healthy sip.

  The atmosphere had been soured by the arrival of the unwanted guests, and conversation became stilted. When the ladies withdrew, Leona noticed Lord Amos leave the dining parlour in their wake and stride away from the drawing room, muttering imprecations beneath his breath.

  ‘He’s going to his rooms,’ Frankie said anxiously. ‘I could throttle Mrs Brooke for upsetting him, I really could. Should I go to him, do you think?’

  ‘No,’ Lady Vince said, shaking her head and placing a restraining hand on Frankie’s arm. ‘He needs to be alone for a while.’

  ‘Yes, very likely.’ She sighed. ‘I’m sorry about this, Leona.’

  ‘Please don’t apologise. Let’s hope that the weather soon improves and Lord Amos will not be inconvenienced for long.’

  ‘Indeed.’ Frankie took a long breath as she lowered herself into a chair behind the tea trolley and poured for them all. ‘Goodness,’ she said, blinking. ‘Where did Ariana go?’

  Leona didn’t reply, despite the fact that she had seen her slip away when they left the dining room and follow Lord Amos.

  Chapter Six

  Ariana had sensed the barely suppressed anger that radiated through Lord Amos when he learned who their unwelcome visitors were. Frown lines etched themselves into his brow, he clenched his jaw, and his eyes that moments ago had been glittering with amusement at a word she had mispronounced turned as black as obsidian. This was a side of him that she hadn’t seen before, and it frightened her. He had gradually, day by day, begun to recover from his devastating loss, and now these inconsiderate people had undone all his progress in one fell swoop. His mind, Ariana knew, would again be swamped with recollections of the woman he had adored, and he would likely never completely recover from having her snatched from him far too soon.

  She had wanted to reassure him, to tell him that his children were safe in her care and that she wouldn’t allow his dead wife’s relatives to interfere with their routine. But she couldn’t say any of those things to the man who had come to occupy so many of her thoughts; not in front of others, and possibly not at all. She didn’t have the right. She wouldn’t admit to anyone just how much he meant to her. As she grew to trust him, so she anticipated his frequent visits to the nursery and their rides together. She made excuses to speak with him, but always remembered to remain a little aloof and not make it seem as though she was pursuing him.

  She was not.

  There was no place for a man in her life. Not now and perhaps not ever. Until she could ascertain what had happened to her brother Raphael and put behind her the horrors that still haunted her dreams, she would never be able to settle to a life of domestic routine. Seeing her mother raped and murdered by marauding French troops and her father so brutally cut down when he tried to defend her had left her indelibly scarred. She had survived and they had not. She would never recover from the guilt and didn’t deserve to be happy. Even if she did, she could hardly aspire to win the affections of a man of Lord Amos’s elevated stature.

  A man who was still in love with his dead wife.

  It was different for Martina. She was younger, and Ariana had shielded her sister from the worst of the atrocities. She knew that her parents had been killed but hadn’t actually witnessed the event. Ariana, keeping them hidden in a place that the French had mercifully not found, had covered Martina’s eyes and made her put her hands over her ears. But for Ariana the sounds, screams, smells and the raucous laughter of the soldiers would always be with her, feeding her hatred for the men who had escaped punishment.

  Matters were made worse when Ariana accepted in desperation a captain’s offer of sea transportation from Valencia to Barcelona, where she expected to be employed as a governess. Instead, she and Martina had finished up as prisoners here in England, destined to be sold into prostitution. Seeing what had happened to her parents had worked in Ariana’s favour, and she found herself fiercely determined not to suffer that fate. She would prefer to take her chances escaping or die in the attempt.

  They would have been recaptured and most likely died had not Lord Amos happened along and saved them both. She had been a little in love with him ever since, and repaid him in some small way by caring for his children, helping his eldest, Charlotte, to overcome the loss of her mother. Ariana knew from first-hand experience what a gaping hole that loss would leave in Charlotte’s young heart.

  As she grew to know and understand Lord Amos better, she began to feel more than just gratitude towards him for rescuing her from such an uncertain future. He had taken them both in and given them employment, and the duchess had insisted upon Ariana dining with the family as though she was one of them, supplying her with the clothing to make it possible. When Ariana raised objections, the duchess pointed out that her family in Spain had been what she described as top drawer. Wondering why her benefactress had chosen to compare her family to an item of furniture, it had been necessary for the duchess to explain the meaning of that colloquialism.

  Ariana felt awkward at first, dining in opulent surroundings that left her now destroyed home in Spain in the shade. But the duke and duchess were so kind to her that she gradually began to relax in their company and to realise that her presence in the drawing room brought Lord Amos out of himself. He felt responsible for her and including her in his family circle distracted him from his very obvious grief.

  She wondered how it must feel to be so comprehensively loved that the person you left behind felt as though a vital part of himself had died too. Lord Amos seldom mentioned his dead wife’s name but her spectre hung between them, always there, never talked about. Early in her tenure as the children’s governess, Ariana had told him quite sharply to stop feeling sorry for himself and to put his children’s welfare first. Instead of dismissing her for being so impertinent, Lord Amos absorbed the criticism and turned a corner. His spirits had been slowly recovering ever since, but she still felt as though she hadn’t done enough to repay him.

  Now this woman, the mother of his dead wife, had arrived unannounced, and Lord Amos seemed furious. Ariana was at a loss to know why. He may dislike her and resent her presence, but to be so angry? She shook her head. It made absolutely no sense. Was Mrs Brooke so like his dead wife that looking at her brought all the memories flooding back? Ariana had
absolutely no idea, but had instinctively followed him when he left the dining parlour, sensing that he needed her even if he wasn’t ready to make that admission. She would happily be his sounding board, his whipping boy, or whatever confusing idiom the English chose to describe a situation in which a person needed to find an outlet for their anger.

  She’d had no reason to enter his private suite of rooms before, but she knew where they were. She ran up the stairs and made her way to the wing in which they were housed without meeting anyone. She paused on the threshold, hearing him pacing up and down inside, muttering to himself. Would he welcome her company or send her away? He had never been annoyed with her, she realised now, not once in all the time she had known him, but these circumstances were far from normal.

  Dare she?

  Before she could lose her nerve, Ariana turned the handle and opened the door without first knocking.

  ‘Go away, Zach, I need to…oh!’ He looked over his shoulder, his ferocious scowl turning into a look of mild surprise when he realised who had interrupted him. ‘Ariana, what the devil are you doing here?’

  ‘I was worried about you,’ she replied, stepping into an elegant drawing room a quarter of the size of the one downstairs and, in Ariana’s view, far more intimately inviting. Concerned when a bolt of jealousy ripped through her, she tried not to make it appear that she was examining the room for signs of his wife’s touch. She could see his bedchamber through an open doorway and looked away quickly. ‘But if you would prefer to be left alone to talk to the wall…’

  ‘You are always so direct.’ His expression softened and he even managed a wry smile. ‘You shouldn’t be here, but since you are…’ He waved to a chair in front of the fire.

  ‘You frightened me when your mood turned so black,’ she said, sitting and watching him as he settled into the chair across from her. ‘It was as though I no longer knew you.’

  ‘And yet you came here because you thought I needed a sympathetic ear, despite being afraid of my dire mood.’ He smiled and the grip of winter left his eyes. ‘That must have taken courage.’

  She became increasingly aware of the atmosphere between them, warm and taut, that had little to do with Lord Amos’s emotional turmoil.

  ‘You do not like Mrs Brooke,’ she said, deciding to continue with the direct approach. If he didn’t want to discuss the matter he could ask her to leave, but sensed that he would not. ‘I ask only because she will want to see the children. I need to prepare them. Any mention of their mother affects Charlotte quite badly.’

  Lord Amos splayed his legs and leaned his elbows on his thighs as he lowered his head and appeared to find something to hold his interest on the patterned rug beneath his feet. A deep sigh slipped past his lips. ‘I know,’ he said softly. ‘That is partly why I’m so angry with the woman. She thinks only of herself.’

  Disturbed by his emotional turmoil, Ariana continued to speak in a soft yet brisk tone.

  ‘I have never heard them refer to their grandmother. I’m not sure if they know that they have one. She has not visited them since I have been here, or as far as I am aware sent them any form of communication. Josh’s birthday passed without acknowledgement on her part, which says enough.’

  Lord Amos focused his granite gaze on the fire, lost in memories that Mrs Brooke’s arrival had forced him to confront. ‘You are right on both counts,’ he said eventually, breaking the silence that she had permitted to stretch between them. ‘I detest Mrs Brooke, and the children are barely acquainted with her. Miranda won’t remember her at all, but the other two might.’

  ‘Will you allow her to see them?’

  ‘I can’t decide.’ He threw up his hands. ‘I suppose I shall have to pretend that’s why they fought their way through the snow, even though I am aware that it’s a fiction.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Crista, my wife, was a master jeweller. Were you aware of that?’

  ‘Si. I have seen some of the beautiful things she made. The duchess showed me.’

  ‘She learned at her father’s side. Her mother disapproved, of course. It was an unsuitable occupation for a woman, but I can understand why Crista went against her mother’s wishes. The woman had grand ambitions for her daughters that the younger one, who is now being made to feel unwelcome in the east wing, was happy to go along with. Amelia loves parties and balls and being the centre of attention, but Crista was very different. She didn’t care about dressing up and being seen in all the right places.’

  Ariana wrinkled her nose. ‘She did not qualify to be…how is you say it? Presented?’

  Lord Amos shook his head. ‘The family were not top ton but Mrs Brooke was determined to be accepted. Crista had the good sense not to be interested in any of that. Instead, she idolised her father, learned from him and discovered a natural affinity for making jewellery.’

  ‘I think I would have liked her,’ Ariana said quietly.

  Lord Amos fixed her with a probing look. ‘I don’t have the slightest doubt on that score. I know she approves of your caring for our children.’

  Ariana blinked back tears, thinking it the nicest compliment he had ever paid her. ‘Thank you,’ she replied, swallowing. ‘I am inordinately fond of them. However, carry on telling me whatever you think I need to know. Or whatever it is that you need to talk about. I am more than ready to listen.’

  He sent her a look of affectionate amusement. ‘Crista’s father became famous, and all the indolent rich beat a path to his door demanding to have a Brooke original. Mrs Brooke was finally tolerated in all the right places, albeit for the wrong reasons. But no matter how much Brooke earned, his wife ran through it all in an effort to improve her standing and secure the best possible match for Amelia. He fell into debt and was targeted by scoundrels who, to cut a long story short, saved him from debtors’ gaol but cost him his life.’

  ‘That’s terrible,’ Ariana gasped. ‘No wonder you dislike Mrs Brooke so much. But I cannot help feeling, if you don’t mind my saying, that Mr Brooke was partly responsible. He should have stood up to his wife and curbed her extravagant ways.’

  A faint smile barely troubled Lord Amos’s lips. ‘When you meet her for yourself, I suspect that you will realise just how difficult that would have been for him.’

  She lifted one shoulder. ‘Perhaps.’

  ‘You would think that Brooke’s death would have caused the scoundrels manipulating him to lose interest, but unfortunately it didn’t happen that way. They learned that Crista could make jewellery as well as her father once did and tried to make her take over where he had left off. Her mother tried to persuade her to do so as well.’

  Ariana gasped. ‘But that is wicked!’

  ‘Now you begin to understand. Crista defied her, defied them all, and ran to Compton, where her uncle had a jewellery shop in which she could work on her designs in peace. That’s where I first saw her, head bent over a hot torch as she shaped delicate filigree gold into wonderful patterns. I was mesmerised by her dedication and skill. Anyway, I managed to extract her from the clutches of the ne’er-do-wells and eventually persuaded her to marry me.’

  Ariana widened her eyes. ‘She needed to be coerced? Being included in this family would see all her mother’s ambitions realised.’

  He smiled properly this time. ‘She seemed to think that she wasn’t good enough for me. That she would lower the family’s standing in the eyes of society. I was obliged to set her straight on that particular point. As to her mother, I made it clear she would never be welcomed here. I’d had more of her than I could stomach. If I had not intervened, Crista would have gone the same way as her father.’ He lowered his head again and shook it from side to side. ‘Not that I did that good a job of protecting her, as it transpired.’

  ‘I know the particulars of Lady Amos’s death, and I fail to see how you can blame yourself,’ Ariana said briskly.

  He fixed her with a direct look, his face a tormented mask. ‘And yet I do. Every day.’ />
  ‘Would Lady Amos approve of your constantly berating yourself for something that was not your fault?’ Ariana asked, losing patience with him.

  Lord Amos chuckled. ‘She would be furious, I know that very well, but I can’t seem to help myself. But the pain is slowly easing.’ He paused, allowing time for the scowl to return to his features. ‘Or at least it was.’

  She nodded. ‘Yes, I can quite see why Mrs Brooke’s arrival would stir your emotions.’ Ariana pouted. ‘She sounds very selfish and disagreeable and I give you permission to dislike her as much as you please.’

  Lord Amos chuckled. ‘I had occasion to call at her home in London before she knew of my interest in Crista. She was not expecting me, but automatically assumed that I had seen her younger daughter somewhere and had come to further my acquaintance with the chit. I still recall her shocked expression when I set her straight on the point. Amelia, the sister, was green with envy, despite the fact that she was eagerly pursuing Devonshire, the man she had set her sights on.’ He stood and paced the length of the room. ‘I have never forgiven them for the manner in which they treated Crista. I told them when we married that they’d had as much from me as they would ever get.’

  ‘But that didn’t stop them trading on the connection or attempting to be invited here, I assume.’ Ariana tilted her head. ‘Fighting their way here in a blizzard and suffering the indignity of travelling the last leg of the journey in a wagon implies desperation.’

  ‘It does indeed.’ She jumped when a log crackled in the grate, sending sparks shooting out. ‘I dislike being manipulated above all things, but hopefully the roads will be clear by morning and I can send them on their way.’

  ‘You think they want money?’

  He made a disgruntled sound at the back of his throat. ‘They always do.’ Lord Amos threw back his head and sighed. ‘I suppose I shall have to allow them to see the children, but not alone.’